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National view: Tragedies show need for 'constitutional carry'

When tragedy strikes, as it did recently in Sutherland Springs, Texas, people set aside their differences and unite. We pray because we know it is powerful even when we feel powerless, and we work to find healing.

Part of that healing is anger. We want to find someone to blame. Beyond just the perpetrator, people may blame the victims for not being prepared or the police for not being faster or the Legislature for not having more laws or God for allowing it to happen at all.

Anger is understandable, but it is also dangerous. People often want to use anger to achieve their own goals. They want the mob to rise up and help them increase their power. We see this regularly from politicians crying out for more authority so they can "fix things."

One of the most common guises is to call for "common-sense gun control." Common sense is included in an attempt to make you feel nonsensical if you do not happen to hold the same views.

But Texans historically have had a different sense of how to deal with gun legislation. That is why the Republican Party of Texas calls for our state to recognize constitutional carry, so that anyone who legally possesses a handgun may carry it, open or concealed, without a government-granted permit. The Texas Young Republican Federation supports and affirms this priority legislation.

As we saw in Sutherland Springs, good men and women should not only have the right to carry a gun but also to use it. We are thankful for those who were prepared and helped stop the killer from escaping. These armed citizens probably saved countless innocent lives.

Our federation continues to call on elected officials to conduct themselves with tact and to stop using these types of situations to manipulate public sentiment. We oppose any call for committees or commissions whose purpose is to limit the ability of innocent Texans to defend themselves, no matter which side of the aisle they sit on.

We cannot stop evil. We can only empower good people to do the right thing.

As former Texas state Rep. Susan Gratia-Hupp testified before Congress regarding the 1991 mass shooting at a Luby's Cafeteria in Killeen, Texas, "I'm not a victim of guns but of lawmakers who legislated me out of the right to protect myself and my family."

Hupp was only 32 when she tragically lost her parents in that attack. Like her, today's Texas Young Republicans respond to terror not by seeking to limit freedom but by working to see that more people are prepared to protect their family and their community.

We understand the anger. We know why some want to give the government more power. But history shows that the government's limiting good people is not the answer. We urge lawmakers not to use tragedies to lead Texas down the road of more government but to lead us to a place of greater freedom.

We demand that Texas finally recognize constitutional carry.

Jonathan Gaspard is the policy director for the Texas Young Republicans. He wrote this originally for the Dallas Morning News. He may be contacted at jonathan.gaspard@me.com.